As the 2024 calendar year comes to its conclusion and 2025 is just a few days away, we look back at the numbers from the 1st XVs 21 matches played.
The 2024 calendar year has seen Tottonians play 21 league matches, winning 15 and losing 6. We scored 662 points and conceded 455. That is a win% of 71.43 – which is actually our lowest win% since 2020’s curtailed season when we won four of seven games before the season was scrapped (57.14% wins).
The 1st XV averaged 31.52 points and conceded 21.67 points per game – both being the lowest (for) and highest (against) since the squished 2020 year. And we lost two games at home – which is as many as we did in four years from 2020-2023!
We had a good record on the road in 2024, winning six of our ten games but with an average of 28.4 points scored per game, which was the second highest since 2015’s 36 per match (and only fractionally behind the 2022 28.5 per match).
One record that is very impressive is our record in the 2020s – playing 81 and winning 62, with a win% of 76.54, by far the highest of any of the previous four decades of league action. We are also averaging 32.16 points per game, five points ahead of the 2010s!
So let’s have a look at the try scorers and the points scorers.
Our leading try scorer in the 1st XV in 2024 was Leo Tongue, who crossed 12 times (three last season and nine this). Skipper Liam Murphy found his way over the line nine times and new signing Tom Tully zipped in with 7. Harry Dolbear and Josh Raqio have scored 6, Dylan Kirk 5 while Cameron Flint and Scott Rogers have both touched down 4 times.
As for the point scorers, Robbie Searle has collected 92 points and Jamie Laing 63. Tongue’s 12 tries gives him 60 points, while Ethan Riley is the fourth to pass 50 points, scoring one try and 47 points from the boot for a tally of 52.
28 players scored tries this season, eight scoring just the one and six players scored twice.
Our biggest win of the season came at home to Newbury Blues 59-8 followed by the Guildford success 55-28 and Petersfield 50-22, the third calendar year that we have passed 50 points three times or more. And we only conceded 30+ points once in 2024 – that coming in the nerve-jangling victory over Bournemouth.
The defeat against Bournemouth was the first time that we had conceded a double figure losing margin since the Jersey loss away in November last year (lost by 32). The six defeats inbetween were all by a single figure.
That’s 2024 over and done with – we go again on 4th January for what will be our 39th year of league rugby. Will this one become the seventh to feature a promotion?
